Area live
Role: User researcher, Team Leader & Moderator
Tools: Usertesting.com, Mircosoft word, InDesign
Area Live the app
The task for this project was to research a series of tests using Usertesting.com for a usability course in spring 2021. The goal of the project is to create a better user experience for the users of an app or website. I decided I wanted to work with real clients of an app called Area Live.
The purpose of Area Live is to be an event sourcing app that suggests local events and entertainment by using your current location or your desired zip code/destination. Area Live uses a map and lists to show the user's potential events. The users do have an option to filter events, book a Lyft, and purchase tickets to the events. Currently, the app is only functioning in Atlanta, Georgia, and surrounding metro areas.
My team conducted a stakeholder interview to get a better understanding of what the clients expected from the user testing. The Stakeholders main concerns were their next step for Area Live. The stakeholders were planning to add social media to Area Live. The stakeholders wanted to know how they could attract users to the platform and make Area Live user friendly. Our team planned out 3 different test on Usertesting.com that best suit the needs of the clients.
Duration: 8 weeks
Research: Social Media Analytics
The Team
As a team we worked all virtually through different communication channels. As a Team leader I had the honor to lead our team through a stakeholder interview with the creators of Area Live and create the methods that best fit our stakeholder’s goals.
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Team Leader/User Researcher / Moderator
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User Researcher
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User Researcher/UX Writer
Goals
As a team our first thought was to host an stakeholder interview with the Area Live team via Microsoft team. I moderated the interview as my team mates took notes during the interview. We wanted to know what were the concerns, goals, and experience with their Area Live app. the goals the stakeholders wanted from this user testing was
How users interacted to the current state of Area Live.
How could they increase User interaction.
How to improve users overall interaction with Area Live.
Also, the stakeholders revealed to us that they wanted to add a social media element to Area live in the near future. From these goals we came up with a research question that would guide the team through this project.
“What can be improved to the AreaLive app to create a social media culture?”
Testing Plan
Once we created the goals were clear we started the Usability tests on UserTesting.com. Our plan consisted of 4-9 participants between the ages of 18-40. The test we chose to get the best user feedback was Rapid User Test, I like I wish what if, and Real Conversational Feedback.
Rapid User Test
The purpose of this test was to gain background information of users of Area Live. The test identifies where Area Live fits into a day to day life.
Real Conversational Feedback
The purpose is to get live feedback while exploring Area Live. This test is to provided a natural environment of the user to conduct the test.
I like, I wish, what if
The purpose is to identify positives and negatives of Area Live. This sparked conversations for the user’s thought process.
Results
We received our User testing within 2 days of launching and we got overall 9 participants from the ages 18-13. Most of the participants were from outside of the Atlanta area with 5 males, 3 females, and 1 non-binary.
As a team, we had gone through the results of all the tests and wrote down what stood out to each team member. We found similar responses through affinity mapping and narrowed down the similar sticky notes.
User Feedback:
Pros
Users enjoyed the concept of the Area Live
Users enjoyed the abundance of events that Area Live had to offer
Cons
Users wished that Area Live would work outside of Metro Atlanta
Users wished that the filter feature would filter options
We recommended to our stakeholders to fix the broken links throughout the app. The second recommendation was to create margins larger margins away from the bottom of the app screen.
The Visuals
Once we go out goal of our primary user we were able to map out the how we would build our The Helping Pot. The user flow is starts with a login screen. User of the helping pot need an account to use the app. Once the user creates the account the first screen displays the volunteer opportunities. The user can explore different organizations and the type of volunteer experiences. The features that were in the requirements phase were added to the app’s flow.
Our team did conduct user testing on our lo-fidelity prototype to see how the user would interact with the app.
Wire frame of our user journey
Conclusion
The helping pot is a way for everyone to find volunteer opportunities in a streamlined app. We created this app through the goal directed design process. The research based process helped us have creditable evidence to back up our design decisions. We reached our goal of meeting our target users needs. Check out the logo created by myself for the Helping pot prototype app.
Helping pot logo
